Engineering Commons^™

Water Resources Management - Singapore University Of Technology And Design, Stefano Galelli

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Undergraduate course in Water Resources Management offered at Singapore University of Technology and Design in Spring 2015.

Water Resources Systems Analysis - Colorado State University, Darrell Fontane

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Applications of systems analysis, simulation and optimization techniques in water resources planning and management. Course taught at Colorado State University.

Engineering Decision Support And Expert Systems - Colorado State University, John Labadie

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The student is introduced to development of decision support systems (DSS) for application to complex engineering management and design problems under conflicting objectives and uncertainty. A number of techniques are introduced for aiding in the analysis of a wide range of complex multiobjective engineering problems. Several stochastic optimization methods are presented for including risk and reliability in engineering design. Basic concepts of expert systems (ES) are discussed to show an essential synergy between DSS and ES for development of decision support structures that allow inclusion of human domain knowledge, heuristics and fuzzy logic. Heuristic methods such as genetic algorithms and …

Environmental Systems Engineering - Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Arthur Mcgarity

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Course in environmental systems engineering offered at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore in Spring 2015.

Analysis Of Rainfall Time-Series, Stefano Galelli

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No abstract provided.

Modelling Rainfall-Runoff Processes (Empirical Models), Stefano Galelli

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No abstract provided.

Student Professional Awareness Conference - Additional Details | Electrical And Computer Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

LOGAN, Utah – March 16, 2015 – The USU local chapter of IEEE, institute of electrical and electronics engineers, will have the privilege of hosting the annual StudentProfessional Awareness conference, SPAC 2015, on March 28, 2015.

Integration Of An Energy Balance Snowmelt Model Into An Open Source Modeling Framework, A. Sen Gupta, David G. Tarboton, P. Hummel, M. E. Brown, S. Habib

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a data model for organizing the inputs and outputs of an energy balance snowmelt model (the Utah Energy Balance Model, UEB) that provides a foundation for its integration into the EPA BASINS modeling framework and enables its coupling with other hydrologic models in this system. Having UEB as a BASINS component has facilitated its coupling with the Geospatial Streamflow Forecast Model (GeoSFM) to compute the melting of glaciers and subsequent streamflow in the Himalayas. The data model uses a combination of structured text and network Common Data Form (netCDF) files to represent parameters, geographical, time series, and …

A Unified Approach For Process-Based Hydrologic Modeling: 2. Model Implementation And Case Studies, Martyn P. Clark, Bart Nijssen, Jessica D. Lundquist, Dmitri Kavetski, David E. Rupp, Ross A. Woods, Jim E. Freer, Ethan D. Gutmann, Andrew W. Wood, David J. Gochis, Roy M. Rasmussen, David G. Tarboton, Vinod Mahat, Gerald N. Flerchinger, Danny G. Marks

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This work advances a unified approach to process-based hydrologic modeling, which we term the “Structure for Unifying Multiple Modeling Alternatives (SUMMA).” The modeling framework, introduced in the companion paper, uses a general set of conservation equations with flexibility in the choice of process parameterizations (closure relationships) and spatial architecture. This second paper specifies the model equations and their spatial approximations, describes the hydrologic and biophysical process parameterizations currently supported within the framework, and illustrates how the framework can be used in conjunction with multivariate observations to identify model improvements and future research and data needs. The case studies illustrate the …

Particulate-Matter Emission Estimates From Agricultural Spring-Tillage Operations Using Lidar And Inverse Modeling, Kori D. Moore, Michael D. Wojcik, Randy S. Martin, Christian C. Marchant, D. S. Jones, W. J. Bradford, G. E. Bingham, R L. Pfeiffer, J. H. Prueger, J. L. Hatfield

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Particulate-matter (PM) emissions from a typical spring agricultural tillage sequence and a strip–till conservation tillage sequence in California’s San Joaquin Valley were estimated to calculate the emissions control efficiency (ηη) of the strip–till conservation management practice (CMP). Filter-based PM samplers, PM-calibrated optical particle counters (OPCs), and a PM-calibrated light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system were used to monitored upwind and downwind PM concentrations during May and June 2008. Emission rates were estimated through inverse modeling coupled with the filter and OPC measurements and through applying a mass balance to the PM concentrations derived from LIDAR data. Sampling irregularities and errors …

Assessment Of Surface Soil Moisture Using High-Resolution Multi-Spectral Imagery And Artificial Neural Networks, Leila Hassan-Esfahani, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Austin M. Jensen, Mac Mckee

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Many crop production management decisions can be informed using data from high-resolution aerial images that provide information about crop health as influenced by soil fertility and moisture. Surface soil moisture is a key component of soil water balance, which addresses water and energy exchanges at the surface/atmosphere interface; however, high-resolution remotely sensed data is rarely used to acquire soil moisture values. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to quantify the effectiveness of using spectral images to estimate surface soil moisture. The model produces acceptable estimations of surface soil moisture (root mean square error (RMSE) = …

Automatic Registration Of Fused Lidar/Digital Imagery (Texel Images) For Three-Dimensional Image Creation, Scott E. Budge, Neeraj S. Badamikar, Xuan Xie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Several photogrammetry-based methods have been proposed that the derive three-dimensional (3-D) information from digital images from different perspectives, and lidar-based methods have been proposed that merge lidar point clouds and texture the merged point clouds with digital imagery. Image registration alone has difficulty with smooth regions with low contrast, whereas point cloud merging alone has difficulty with outliers and a lack of proper convergence in the merging process. This paper presents a method to create 3-D images that uses the unique properties of texel images (pixel-fused lidar and digital imagery) to improve the quality and robustness of fused 3-D images. …

Nanoparticle Properties And Synthesis Effects On Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (Sers) Enhancement Factor: An Introduction, Nathan D. Israelsen, Cynthia Hanson, Elizabeth Vargis

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Raman spectroscopy has enabled researchers to map the specific chemical makeup of surfaces, solutions, and even cells. However, the inherent insensitivity of the technique makes it difficult to use and statistically complicated. When Raman active molecules are near gold or silver nanoparticles, the Raman intensity is significantly amplified. This phenomenon is referred to as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The extent of SERS enhancement is due to a variety of factors such as nanoparticle size, shape, material, and configuration. The choice of Raman reporters and protective coatings will also influence SERS enhancement. This review provides an introduction to how these factors …

Usu Researcher Lands Air Force Grant To Build Smarter Antenna | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release — LOGAN, UTAH, Feb 27, 2015 — All the amazing functions of your smart phone or tablet would be useless without the tiny antennas inside that receive and transmit information.

Despite their modern design and capabilities, today’s antennas aren’t nearly as smart as the devices they power. But a researcher at Utah State University’s College of Engineering is trying to change that with new research aimed at making antenna technology work smarter.

Just The Facts: A Fresh Look At Undergraduate Engineering Retention | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

The department head and associate dean in the College of Engineering at Utah State University can pull up dozens of detailed spreadsheets and graphs outlining the latest trends in student performance.

Usu Engineering Professors Headline Electric Vehicle And Roadway Conference | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Originally posted Feb. 10, 2015 – PARK CITY, Utah – Top executives from the automotive industry and engineering experts from Utah State University and around the world came together this week to discuss the future of electric vehicles.

Wavelet-Multivariate Relevance Vector Machine Hybrid Model For Forecasting Daily Evapotranspiration, Roula Bachour, I. Maslova, Andres M. Ticlavilca, Wynn R. Walker, Mac Mckee

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the main components of the hydrological cycle. It is a complex process driven mainly by weather parameters, and as such, is characterized by high non-linearity and non-stationarity. This paper introduces a methodology combining wavelet multiresolution analysis with a machine learning algorithm, the multivariate relevance vector machine (MVRVM), in order to predict 16 days of future daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo). This methodology lays the ground for forecasting the spatial distribution of ET using Landsat satellite imagery, hence the choice of 16 days, which corresponds with the Landsat overpass cycle. An accurate prediction of daily ETo is …

Wearout Resilience In Nocs Through An Aging Aware Adaptive Routing Algorithm, Dean Michael Ancajas, Kshitij Bhardwaj, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Continuous technology scaling has made aging mechanisms, such as negative bias temperature instability and electromigration primary concerns in network-on-chip (NoC) designs. In this paper, we extensively analyze the effects of these aging mechanisms on NoC routers and links. We observe a critical need of a robust aging-aware routing algorithm that not only reduces power-performance overheads caused due to aging degradation, but also minimizes the stress experienced by heavily utilized routers and links. To solve this problem, we propose an aging-aware adaptive routing algorithm and a router microarchitecture that routes the packets along the paths, which are both least congested and …

Shpe Students Reach Out To Hispanic Youth | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Originally posted Jan 31, 2015 – Navigating the college admissions process can be a complicated experience for high school students, especially for young people whose parents are unfamiliar with the system themselves.

But Utah State University engineering students worked to change that Saturday night with a community workshop aimed at educating Hispanic parents in Cache Valley about the college application process and financial aid programs available for students here in Utah.

Utah State University And Nasa Launch Probes Into Northern Lights | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

In the cold, nighttime skies over Alaska, a NASA Oriole IV suborbital sounding rocket blasted off from the Poker Flat Research Range today at 3:41 a.m. (MST) carrying six research payloads built by the Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory into the Aurora Borealis as part of NASA’s Auroral Spatial Structures Probe mission.

Transitioning The Benefits Of Algal Growth To The Byproducts Of Oil And Natural Gas Production, Alan Hodges, Tyler Gladwin, Cody Maxfield, Jonathan Wood

Research on Capitol Hill

No abstract provided.

A Low-Cost, Software Defined, Ground-Based Radio Frequency Beacon Receiver (Rfbr) For Measuring Ionosphere Tec And Amplitude And Phase Scintillation, Jacob Gunther, Chad Fish, Charles Swenson, Tim Neilsen, Brent Haslem, Bryan Hansen, Kelby Davis, Steve Higley, Todd Parris, Don Thompson, Charles Rino, Keith Groves

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

By monitoring the effects of the ionosphere on multiple space originating radio frequency (RF) beacons, characterizing parameters can be derived which can then be ingested into global assimilative models to improve ionospheric specification and to estimate ionosphere-induced degradation of communication and navigation signals across the electromagnetic spectrum. This paper describes the requirements, design and construction of a ground-based beacon receiver for measuring total electron concentration and amplitude and phase scintillation of the ionosphere. The design achieves very low cost by using the latest in commercial RF and software defined radio technology. The receiver can simultaneously observe three tones spanning ultra-high …

Usu Alumnus, Wwii Aviator Makes Generous Gift To College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

LOGAN, Utah, Jan. 13, 2015 – Longtime Cache Valley resident and World War II veteran John “Burt” Millard and his wife, Alma Millard, are leaving a legacy that will impact future engineering students at Utah State University for many years to come.

Millard, who turns 95 in March, contributed a gift of $250,000 this month for the creation of a scholarship endowment that will benefit College of Engineering undergraduate students and provide funding for student projects, competitions and special events.

Propulsion Theory Of Flapping Airfoils, Comparison With Computational Fluid Dynamics, Doug F. Hunsaker, W. F. Phillips

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The thrust, required power, and propulsive efficiency of a flapping airfoil as predicted by the well-known Theodorsen model are compared with solutions obtained from grid- resolved inviscid computational fluid dynamics. A straight-forward summary of Theodorsen’s flapping airfoil model is presented using updated terminology and symbols. This shows that both axial and normal reduced frequencies are of significant importance. The axial reduced frequency is based on the chord length and the normal reduced frequency is based on the plunging amplitude. Computational fluid dynamics solutions are presented over the range of both reduced frequencies typically encountered in the forward flight of birds. …

Indicators Of Reservoir Performance, Stefano Galelli

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No abstract provided.

Experimental Validation Data For Cfd Of Transient Convection From Forced To Natural With Flow Reversal On A Vertical Flat Plate, Blake W. Lance, Barton L. Smith

Engineering Datasets

Transient convection was investigated experimentally for the purpose of providing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) validation data. A specialized facility for validation experiments called the Rotatable Buoyancy Tunnel was used to acquire thermal and velocity measurements of flow over a smooth, vertical heated plate. The initial condition was forced convection downward with subsequent transition to mixed convection, ending with natural convection upward after a flow reversal. Data acquisition through the transient was repeated for ensemble-averaged results. With simple flow geometry, validation data were acquired at the benchmark level. All boundary conditions (BCs) were measured and their uncertainties quantified. Temperature profiles on …

Synthetic Biology Open Language (Sbol) Version 2.0.0, Bryan Bartley, Jacob Beal, Kevin Clancy, Goksel Misirli, Nicholas Roehner, Ernst Oberortner, Matthew Pocock, Michael Bissell, Curtis Madsen, Tramy Nguyen, Zhen Zhang, John H. Gennari, Chris Myers, Anil Wipat, Herbert Sauro

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Synthetic biology builds upon the techniques and successes of genetics, molecular biology, and metabolic engineering by applying engineering principles to the design of biological systems. The field still faces substantial challenges, including long devel

Textured Digital Elevation Model Formation From Low-Cost Uav Ladar/Digital Image Data, Taylor C. Bybee, Scott Budge

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Textured digital elevation models (TDEMs) have valuable use in precision agriculture, situational awareness, and disaster response. However, scientific-quality models are expensive to obtain using conventional aircraft-based methods. The cost of creating an accurate textured terrain model can be reduced by using a low-cost (<$20k) UAV system fitted with ladar and electro-optical (EO) sensors. A texel camera fuses calibrated ladar and EO data upon simultaneous capture, creating a texel image. This eliminates the problem of fusing the data in a post-processing step and enables both 2D- and 3D-image registration techniques to be used. This paper describes formation of TDEMs using simulated data from a small UAV gathering swaths of texel images of the terrain below. Being a low-cost UAV, only a coarse knowledge of position and attitude is known, and thus both 2D- and 3D-image registration techniques must be used to register adjacent swaths of texel imagery to create a TDEM. The process of creating an aggregate texel image (a TDEM) from many smaller texel image swaths is de- scribed. The algorithm is seeded with the rough estimate of position and attitude of each capture. Details such as the required amount of texel image overlap, registration models, simulated flight patterns (level and turbulent), and texture image formation are presented. In addition, examples of such TDEMs are shown and analyzed for accuracy.

Experimental Validation Data For Cfd Of Steady And Transient Mixed Convection On A Vertical Flat Plate, Blake W. Lance

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Simulations are becoming increasingly popular in science and engineering. One type of simulation is Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) that is used when closed forms solutions are impractical. The field of Verification & Validation emerged from the need to assess simulation accuracy as they often contain approximations and calibrations.

Validation involves the comparison of experimental data with simulation outputs and is the focus of this work. Errors in simulation predictions may be assessed in this way. Validation requires highly-detailed data and description to accompany these data, and uncertainties are very important.

The purpose of this work is to provide highly complete …

Grassroots Or Returning To One’S Roots? Unpacking The Inception Of A Youth-Focused Community Makerspace, Victor R. Lee, Whitney L. King, Ryan Cain

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we describe the individuals and factors contributing to the emergence of a community makerspace in a small city in the United States. As research into how makerspaces have come into existence is still in a nascent stage, this single case study is intended to describe and highlight some of the complexities involved in creating such a facility. Based on analysis of onsite observations, interviews of adults connected with the space, and electronic communications, we present a story of how two co-founders of a youth-focused makerspace went from having initial interest in extracurricular activities for their own children …